Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/482

450   We brew in many a Christian fane
 * The heathen Soma still!

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
 * Forgive our foolish ways!

Reclothe us in our rightful mind, In purer lives Thy service find,
 * In deeper reverence, praise.

In simple trust like theirs who heard
 * Beside the Syrian sea

The gracious calling of the Lord, Let us, like them, without a word,
 * Rise up and follow Thee.

O Sabbath rest by Galilee!
 * O calm of hills above,

Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee The silence of eternity
 * Interpreted by love!

With that deep hush subduing all
 * Our words and works that drown

The tender whisper of Thy call, As noiseless let Thy blessing fall
 * As fell Thy manna down.

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
 * Till all our strivings cease;

Take from our souls the strain and stress, And let our ordered lives confess
 * The beauty of Thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire
 * Thy coolness and Thy balm;

Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire; Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
 * O still, small voice of calm!

the isle of Penikese, Ringed about by sapphire seas, Fanned by breezes salt and cool, Stood the Master with his school. Over sails that not in vain Wooed the west-wind’s steady strain, Line of coast that low and far Stretched its undulating bar, Wings aslant across the rim Of the waves they stooped to skim, Rock and isle and glistening bay, Fell the beautiful white day.

Said the Master to the youth: We have come in search of truth, Trying with uncertain key Door by door of mystery; We are reaching, through His laws, To the garment-hem of Cause, Him, the endless, unbegun, The Unnamable, the One Light of all our light the Source, Life of life, and Force of force.